


The Rules

by orphan_account



Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series)
Genre: Getting Together, Horny Ricky Goldsworth, Kinda-Enemies to Friends to Lovers, M/M, Modern Setting
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-13
Updated: 2019-10-13
Packaged: 2020-12-14 13:42:07
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,966
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21016706
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Ricky Goldsworth doesn’t have time for a relationship.He doesn’t get the luxury of having feelings.But god, a man has needs.Ricky has an arrangement with some of his men, just a little stress reliever.But then C.C. Tinsley enters the picture.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey whats up!  
This was inspired by [this lovely art right here.](https://cckinksley.tumblr.com/post/184613751452/can-i-get-uhhhhhh-tinsworths-first-kiss)
> 
> [And also this fanfiction ;P](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16292264)

Look, Ricky Goldsworth doesn’t have time for _ a relationship _.

He doesn’t get the luxury of having _ feelings _.

But god, a man has _ needs. _

And so he has a… rotation, of sorts. A cast of well-known confidants who are willing to lend a hand (and other body parts) to help him relieve a little stress. He gets the feeling none of them feel particularly put out by it, he’s been told that he looks damn good bent over his own big, mahogany desk, or ruffled and panting in the back seat of his spacious luxury car.

He has ground rules, of course, because again, he doesn’t need _ a relationship, _ or _ feelings. _

‘No kissing’ just seemed like a no brainer- it’s too intimate, too feelings-y, easy enough to avoid, he’d thought. But one memorable Saturday night after a brief shootout with the local cops, he had barely shut the grand front door behind him when he’d grabbed Curly, one of his lieutenants, by the wrist and dragged him into Ricky’s study. He’d had Ricky on his back on the desk, legs splayed wide, and it was as though Ricky could feel him fucking the tension and adrenaline out of him with each harsh thrust. He’d collapsed over Ricky in the aftermath and their noses had bumped together. He seemed to act on instinct when he’d pressed their lips together, but he seemed to notice his mistake immediately. Ricky was happy with his damage control, however. Curly had immediately pulled back, apologised, and left Ricky to tidy himself up (which is how he prefers it). He’d given Ricky some space for a while, and Ricky had taken him out of rotation for a few weeks before giving him another chance. Thankfully, it didn’t continue to be an issue. Curly was a good sport about these things, real good at respecting boundaries.

The next rule, Ricky felt, shouldn’t have _ needed _ to be explicit. So he’d framed it as a joke when he’d told each confidant, “Don’t fall in love with me”. And yeah, they’d all laughed, so he’d figured he was in the clear, right? Apparently not. 

Ricky had liked Zack Evans; you know, platonically. He was a good marksman and he looked pretty damn good with his shirt off. But then. But then Zack had been plowing him from behind one day, Ricky was on all fours on his big bed, with his back arched and his chest pushed up against the fine silk of his own sheets. And then Zack had hunched over his glistening back and panted the words out.

“I love you”

Ricky had tensed up immediately. He had rolled over to assess the damage and yeah, Zack was looking at him like maybe he did actually mean it, looking at Ricky like he expected him to take it _ well, _ to let him be an exception to the rule.

And obviously, Ricky hadn’t, because he wasn’t.

He’d pushed Zack off himself and grabbed a spare condom from the bedside drawer, gone out into the hallway, grabbed Brent by the arm, dragged him into the nearest spare bedroom, and ridden him to his own completion. By the time he’d returned, Zack was gone, thank god. Ricky had removed him permanently from the rotation after that, and he definitely seemed to be less graceful about it than Curly was. His sniper work had started to suffer, he started to give Ricky _ backtalk _ , he would question orders. And so Ricky removed him from that rotation too. He hadn’t _ killed him _ or anything, he’d just rocked up at his house and broken a few windows to teach him a lesson.

So yeah, Ricky Goldsworth don’t do _ feelings _. He’s pretty good at setting hard boundaries to prevent them.

He’d thought.

But see there’s this one detective. A _ detective _ of all people!

But Tinsley wasn’t just _ any _ detective. He’d taken something of a shine to Ricky, to his particular brand of nearly-vigilante lawlessness. He liked that Ricky didn’t hurt people without reason, liked that the man had a moral code. And so he’d helped Ricky out of a few scrapes, a few times when the law had gotten uncomfortably close to being able to pin something on him. In return, Ricky had helped him right some wrongs regarding some corrupt coworkers of his. 

The first time had been… surprising. He’d left a message with one of Ricky’s right hand men that he needed to talk. Ricky had been cautious. Up until that point, the two of them had had a tenuous, unspoken agreement that they both fought for the same cause. So Ricky wasn’t entirely sure that this wasn’t a trap.

So he’d rocked up to Tinsley’s small apartment, armed to the teeth (with legally registered weapons of course) and a few of his meaner-looking friends. But then Tinsley had offered him some popcorn. And it was like a switch had been flipped and his guard was officially down.

He’d sat Ricky at his cheap dining room table- much too small for his long legs- and told him about a problem he was having with a coworker. He’d told Ricky that this absolute scumbag of a beat cop had been performing unlawful stop-and-frisks just so he could feel up young women. Ricky is not ashamed to admit that he had seen red in that moment.

And then Tinsley had said, “So yeah, just wanted to tell you that” and had silently slid him a small piece of paper with the cop’s full name and address jotted down neatly.

Tinsley hadn’t looked conflicted in the moment, which Ricky had liked about him. He didn’t seem upset to be setting another officer up for harm. He had looked confident and apathetic, and it had made Ricky bite his lip against an unbidden wave of kinship that he felt for the detective. On Ricky’s way out the door, Tinsley had said that since Ricky seems to like popcorn as much as he does, maybe the two of them could get together for regular movie nights. 

-

Ricky had laughed at the suggestion at the time, but it wasn’t more than a few weeks before he’d received another message, asking him back so the two of them could watch the latest Avengers movie on Netflix. He’d gone alone this time, curiosity getting the best of him, but he was no less armed. When he’d arrived, Tinsley did, in fact, have the Netflix home screen set up, and two huge bowls of popcorn set on his coffee table.

“If you wanted to ‘Netflix and chill’ me, you should know that I'm not that type of girl, detective.” Ricky had joked; though as he sat down, he knew he was _ exactly _ that kind of girl.

Tinsley had rolled his eyes at Ricky and pressed play on the movie, gesturing for the shorter man to sit down beside him on the couch. Ricky had spent the first few minutes of the movie watching Tinsley more than he watched the screen. He’d already seen the movie, but he hadn’t had a chance to appraise the detective too closely before. He had _ long _ legs, which Ricky had thought had suited him, he had lean arms, but Ricky could appreciate the way they bulged when he crossed them over his chest.

He’d noticed Ricky staring fairly quickly and broke the silence,

“There’s a guy at my precinct who’s been threatening the local kids with his gun.” Tinsley had said, simply and without emotion, as though he were pointing out the weather.

“Oh.” Is all Ricky had said, suddenly understanding the nature of their meeting. Tinsley had wordlessly slid over another small card of paper, and Ricky had pocketed it without looking at it. Ricky had leaned forward and grabbed one of the bowls of popcorn and tossed a handful into his mouth before he’d said, “You know, this movie would have been so much better if Spiderman had just been a shit-talking memer the whole time.”

Tinsley had laughed at that, surprised, and had grabbed his own popcorn, and the two of them had relaxed into his sofa and enjoyed the movie. They had bantered and bickered throughout the entire film, and when Ricky had risen from the couch during the credits to stretch, he’d caught Tinsley staring at his exposed stomach for just a moment. He’d smugly filed that piece of interesting information away for later.

“Well, detective, this was fun,” He’d said on his way out the door. “I look forward to meeting up and discussing movies with you again.” And he’d meant it.

-

This had been going for nearly a year by this point. Eventually Ricky just gave Tinsley his mobile number so they could text when he wanted to ‘watch a movie’. They had learned a lot about each other, honestly. Ricky had learned that Tinsley has some frankly incorrect opinions about ghosts, and that he can be a bit of an asshole when listening to other people’s thoughts on ghosts. He’d learned that Tinsley enjoys history, and hence is a goddamn nerd. 

Ricky saw his dick one time. That one was an accident, honestly.

Ricky had arrived half an hour early and had broken into Tinsley’s apartment, just for the purpose of startling him. He was sitting on the couch, in a relaxed pose, feigning boredom when the detective came out and jumped with a shout. Ricky’s mischievous laugh had died in his throat and his mouth dropped open just a little when he saw it. 

Because _ goddamn, _ that detective has a _ giant dick. _ For a very long moment, Ricky hadn’t been able to look away, staring at the way it hung heavily against his leg as Tinsley scrambled to remove the towel from his hair to cover himself. In those few seconds, Ricky’s mouth had watered, his crotch had warmed and pulsed with _ want _, and he’d felt himself desperately clench around nothing.

That had been a tense meeting, the banter awkward and stilted as both of them tried to forget that Tinsley had definitely seen Ricky blatantly ogling him.

After that evening, Ricky had driven home like a madman, 20 over the speed limit, grabbed Brent roughly by the arm and ridden him almost angrily until Ricky had come twice.

Things had returned to normal between them pretty quickly, but _ damn, _he still thinks about that dick, he still has dreams about that dick. God he wants it bad. And maybe he also wants to kiss Tinsley’s dumb face and hold his hand on that dumb cramped couch in his dumb, tiny living room. Ricky has an honest-to-god crush on this fucker and it’s embarrassing.

\- 

And so brings us to the current situation.

The lighting is low and Ricky and the detective are pressed flush against each other from nose to knees. They’re panting into each other’s mouths and Ricky can feel the slow trail of a drop of sweat running down his neck. Both of Tinsley’s big, broad hands are gripping firmly at Ricky’s waist, as the shorter man’s hands lay softly over Tinsley’s pecs, feeling the harsh rhythm of his heartbeat through the thick fabric of his button-up shirt.

Unfortunately, the situation is not actually as sexy as Rick would like it to be.

“OK, you should be in the clear here.” Tinsley looks annoyed as he says it, letting out a deep sigh that echoes infinitely loudly in the small storage closet where he’s stashed Ricky for the moment. “I can only use the same ‘he got away’ excuse for so long, and getting a ‘thank you’ for saving your ass would be great.”

Ricky doesn’t like the small frown that is wrinkling Tinsley’s brow as he looks down at him, Tinsley doesn’t allow people to see cracks in his apathetic facade often, so Ricky’s pretty sure he’s actually fucked up this time.

Ricky runs his hands upwards, over Tinsley’s collarbones gently and grabs him by the collar, somehow managing to pull him in even closer. Ricky pushes himself forward on his tiptoes and brings their mouths together firmly. Tinsley’s lips are soft and warm, where Ricky knows that the detective can feel the rough capped texture of the shorter man’s lips (he’s a nervous biter). Ricky’s eyes have shut but he can feel Tinsley’s long fingers twitching on his waist in shock, uncertainty.

The kiss doesn’t last very long at all before Ricky pulls back and slides a hand up to cup Tinsley’s face, running his thumb lightly over the harsh stubble on his cheek.

“Thanks again, detective.” He demures.

And yeah, ok, Ricky is freaking out a little on the inside. Ricky Goldsworth has no time for kissing or for feelings or any of that crap.

But maybe Ricky Goldsworth has time for the bright flush that has settled over the detective’s cheeks, for the dumb way he’s stammering uselessly into the silence. Maybe Ricky Goldsworth could _ make _ time to fluster the normally oh-so-unflappable CC Tinsley like this on a regular basis. Maybe Ricky Goldsworth doesn’t need a rotating crew of men just to satisfy him, if he has a regular hookup. Someone who is safe, who doesn’t need to follow the rules, someone who _ actually is _ an exception.

And then Tinsley’s grip on Ricky’s hips tightens and he pulls the man against his long body with a renewed fervor, brings his lips to Ricky’s once more, confident and passionate.

And every rule flies out the window.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hell yeah posting two chapters at once
> 
> The next one will pretty deffo just be them fucking for like, 1000-2000 words but we'll see I guess.

Ricky was quick to cut it off with his men after that. He was willing to take his chances on a few “maybe”s if he gets to take that chance with Tinsley. 

God, that sounds sappy.

OK, maybe it’s more that he felt like he and Tinsley were heading towards something distinctly… monogamous. And Ricky isn’t _ that guy _ when it comes to dating, he doesn’t want any overlap or anything that could fuck this up. He doesn’t do _ feelings _ , and so he doesn’t know _ how _ to do _ feelings _. So he figured he should just play it safe.

Most of the guys were pretty chill with it, Curly performed an impromptu ‘Ode to Ricky’s Ass’ as though he were attending a funeral where the deceased person is their sex. But largely, it seemed like there weren’t any hard feelings. In the interest of professionalism, he’d told them a vague truth about why his ass is off limits from now on, that he’d started seeing someone and it seems like they’ll be exclusive. Some of the men gave Ricky a little extra distance for a day or so, and he figured that’s probably normal at the end of any relationship with a sexual component. As long as they could keep doing their jobs well, Ricky didn’t much care what they needed to do to cope with this ‘break up’.

-

To say that Rick has been horny would be… an understatement. He’s gone from having access to dick 24/7, whenever he so chooses, to being in the early stages of a developing relationship with his I-Guess-Boyfriend-Maybe? They’ve only been on one ‘date’ so far- last night, Tinsley had taken him to the cinema to see the new Avengers movie (a deeply sappy throwback to their first hangout session). As they’d parted ways for the evening, Ricky had pulled him down for a long, deep kiss which had started soft but quickly evolved into a needy mix of tongues and soft groans. When they’d finally pulled away, Tinsley had been pushed up against his own car and they were both flushed and panting. Ricky had bitten his lower lip and stared up at Tinsley meaningfully before he’d thanked the detective for a nice evening and walked off towards his own car.

It’s almost 24 hours later now and Ricky is lying stretched out on his own bed, woefully alone, trying to brainstorm ways to ensure their next date happens at Tinsley’s apartment (so that it can finish in his bedroom). He’s basically been ready to bone down since their kiss last night, and it really has been an adjustment getting used to the fact that he can’t just call down his hallway for some dick like he’s used to. He sighs into the quiet of his room. _ Feelings _ have made him soft, he supposes.

His phone pings beside him, and he perks up when he sees that Tinsley has texted him. He should probably find time to be embarrassed by his excitement later.

“Can you come over? Alone?”

A tingle runs down Ricky’s spine and he’s already vaulting himself off the bed to collect some fresh clothes. Fuck _ yes _ he’s definitely gonna get laid tonight!

He shoots back a quick, “Sure thing babe, I’ll be over in 30 ;)” before dropping his phone on the bedspread and launching himself into the shower to give himself a nice, thorough cleaning.

When he emerges from the shower, he checks his phone as he finishes rubbing his hair dry, and his movements grind to a halt as his stomach sinks.

“Not so much of a winking situation, I got jumped on the street tonight and I think we should talk about it.”

And _ then _ Ricky is rushing.

He thought he’d been rushing in his eagerness before, but apparently there’s an entirely new speed he was unfamiliar with, a ‘Tinsley is in trouble’ speed.

Ricky is in his car before his shirt is even fully buttoned, and he reasons that he’ll have time to button it up at the red lights along the way. But he also has no intention of stopping at any red lights.

He manages to find the time to do most of them up haphazardly as he rushes up the stairs inside Tinsley’s building, not even caring that he should be well out of breath by now. When he reaches the detective’s door, he knocks twice, urgently, and is seriously considering kicking it down even though it’s only been half a second.

When Tinsley answers the door, Ricky feels… small. He feels powerless.

Ricky doesn’t like feeling either of those things, it’s why he runs such a large and powerful crime syndicate. It’s why he promptly takes care of anyone who dares to disobey.

But seeing Tinsley before him, left eye blackened, a harsh graze running all along the cheek below it, knowing that there’s nothing he can do to fix it now. He feels small.

Tinsley steps aside wordlessly to let Ricky in and shuts the door behind him. Ricky just stares up at him for another long moment, and when Tinsley finally pulls his eyes up from the floor, he can see that the shorter man’s eyes seem to be brimming with tears. That’s what makes him smile. It’s a sad smile, but it’s really incredibly endearing to know that Ricky could get so upset over him being hurt. Tinsley grabs Ricky’s hand and walks him over to the sofa.

“Wh…” Ricky barely gets the sound out, his hand hovering in the air between them like he wants to reach out and delicately caress Tinsley’s wounds. He clears his throat and tries again. “What happened?”

“So um, this is kind of really weird.” Tinsley starts, rubbing at his arm where Ricky spots a big bruise exposed where the detective has rolled up his shirt sleeves. “But I was attacked on my way home from work tonight.”

“Who did it?” Ricky speaks when Tinsley pauses for a long moment. “I’ll kill them- wait, are you ok? Do you need to go to the hospital or?”

“No, it’s not that bad” Tinsley shakes his head, smiling fondly. “But um, it was this blonde guy… backwards cap, looked like he’d crawled out of a frat house kind of.”

“Pale guy? Scar on his cheek?” Ricky prompts, eyes beginning to narrow suspiciously.

“Yeah, that’s the guy.” Tinsley says, and hesitates for a long moment before he continues. “He said uh… he punched me, knocked me to the ground and then he said uh, ‘Ricky Goldsworth doesn’t like being kissed’.”

Ricky buries his face in his hands for a long, long moment before he jumps up off the couch, pacing wildly in front of the coffee table. 

“Oh- that- the- the fucking- I can’t fucking-” Ricky can barely get a sentence out, and he’s starting to feel manic, brimming with furious energy that makes his fists clench and his blood boil. He stops for a moment and looks over at Tinsley, who is very freshly hurt, and takes a long breath. And calms down. “Why don’t we get you cleaned up and I can tell you all about it?”

Tinsley nods and lets Ricky lead him to his own bathroom. They’ve been good friends for over a year now, of course this career criminal knows his way around Tinsley’s apartment. The detective sits on the closed lid of the toilet and gestures into his medicine cabinet where Ricky starts to pull out some clean cotton pads and adhesive bandages.

“So here’s the thing,” Ricky is pouring a generous amount of disinfectant on a small cloth and Tinsley can feel it sting long before it touches the raw flesh on his cheek. “I used to have something of an… arrangement with some of my closer employees.

“See I have something of a… higher libido, I guess, and it was convenient to have a no-strings-attached sort of deal with a couple people who I trusted. I figured I didn’t really… have time for relationships.” Ricky leaves that hanging in the air for a long moment, scouring Tinsley’s face for any sort of reaction. His usual apathetic facade is only broken by a single raised eyebrow, and so Ricky lets out a long breath and continues. “Zack- the guy who probably jumped you tonight- he caught feelings, so I cut him loose. But he got bitter and unprofessional about it so I had to fire him as well.”

“So when he said that you don’t kiss people?” Tinsley prompts, responding verbally for the first time in a good few minutes.

“That was uh, one of the rules I had for the guys, just to stop it from being complicated.”

“But you kissed me.” Tinsley says, it isn’t a question.

“Yeah, I did.”

“You _ used _ to have this arrangement?” This one is a question, and Ricky knows exactly what he’s asking.

“Yeah, I, uh, I ended things after that day in the closet.” Ricky watches as Tinsley stands from his perch, face soft. Tinsley runs a large hand through Ricky’s hair as the shorter man continues speaking, “I guess Ricky Goldsworth does kiss certain people.”

As if to punctuate this sentiment, Tinsley leans down and uses the hand on the back of Ricky’s head to guide him into a long, soft kiss. Their lips stay closed, the whole affair is slow and chaste and sweet, and it knocks Ricky off his feet just as thoroughly as the kiss from the previous evening.

“So,” Tinsley speaks softly against Ricky’s lips when they finally pull apart. “High libido huh?”

Ricky snorts and disengages from their embrace to laugh, his whole body moving with it. “Shut up, Tinsley.”

The taller man recaptures him in the ring of his long, lean arms, pulling him close. Ricky is surprised by how broad Tinsley’s chest feels now that he’s this close to it, nose pressed lightly against the taller man’s sternum. Tinsley gets a finger under Ricky’s chin and uses it to tilt his head up for another kiss. The movement drives a weakness deep into Ricky’s knees, and he feels himself melt completely against Tinsley, fairly certain he could fall to the floor if not for the taller man holding him up.

“Tinsley?” Ricky murmurs against Tinsley’s lips, waiting for the quiet hum of a response. “Take me to bed?”


End file.
